4. Open science: Necessary but not enough

This chapter considers the Open Science movement as a response to the reproducibility crisis. Its primary goal is to promote transparency through practices such as open data sharing, pre-registration, and open access publishing. These practices lower barriers to replication and critical assessment—activities that could significantly strengthen the robustness of scientific knowledge. Yet removing the barriers is not enough. Despite significant investment in infrastructure, data reuse remains rare, and replication work is still undervalued. Institutional rewards continue to favor novelty, leaving robustness-increasing activities marginalized. Without mechanisms that actively incentivize such work, Open Science risks becoming a necessary but insufficient reform.